Open World Build Help

[suialthor.7164]

I am not a fan of how FB plays, and would like some suggestions for open world builds. It feels like my guardian melts when it takes the slightest damage. This is most likely a skill issue, but with all other professions I have been able to find something that I enjoy playing that can survive long fights and groups of mobs.

Looking over at metabattle there seems to be a lack of diversity in open world suggestions. I was hoping that some of you might offer suggestions.

[HnRkLnXqZ.1870]

Most of the open-world suggestions you get for Guardian go straight for 100 % DPS and 0 % sustain. That is why you melt when you take the slightest damage. The idea behind this strategy is to kill the opponent, before it touches you. Depending on what area of the game you visit, this can work out great or go horribly wrong. The builds work best if you know your class very well and dodge/block almost every attack that cannot be evaded by stepping aside. That said, the more you focus on sustain, the more damage output you will sacrifice.

Core Open WorldA rather basic build that utilized only core-traitlines and easy-to-acquire equipment, no special stats. You use a Greatsword for melee and Scepter + Shield for ranged combat.

It uses the old meditation-setup to empower all Mediation skills and significantly boost Litany of Wrath. Its cooldown is reduced to 20 seconds, heals for almost 6k HP upon activation + additional HP the more damage you deal for the next 6 seconds. In addition it casts a Symbol of Protection, which pulses Protection (- 33 % incoming damage).All Meditation Skills heal you upon casting and cleanse conditions.

Judge's Intervention teleports you to your target, Stand your Ground applies Stability to you and your allies - both break stuns.

You have high fury & might uptimes, which significantly increase your damage output (= recovery while Litany is active). Thanks to the high crit-rate, Empowering Might aids players around with more might stacks. If your opponent feels overwhelming, you can always switch to ranged mode (Scepter + Shield) and keep auto-attacking or use the shield spells to aid allies.

It is a trade-off build. Not very high damage output, significant increase in HP (max. HP 15k), great recovery, almost invulnerable to conditions due to the high amount of cleanses. It will perform good in Open World, Story, acceptable in Dungeons and low-tier fractals.

[Painbow.6059]

Vanilla Power DH or Condition Firebrand. Both are good open-world builds. You can use a mix of marauders and valkyries on DH if you want more health, and maybe carrion for Firebrand. It is a skill issue, Guardian has a lot of inbuilt defence via blocks/blinds etc... I would suggest learning how to use your active defences better than running an inferior build